Fire Research Station Research Articles

Dust explosibility tests and their application

A description is given of the current test methods for the classification of dusts according to explosibility and, for explosible dusts, measurement of the minimum ignition temperature, minimum ignition energy, minimum explosible concentration, maximum explosion pressure and rate of pressure rise, and the maximum permissible oxygen concentration to prevent ignition of a dust cloud. The application of these tests to industrial processes is discussed and their limitations are surveyed in the context of the lack of background information on dust explosions. Further information is urgently needed on the mechanism whereby flame propagates from one dust particle to another in a dust explosion. Current work at the Fire Research Station on this topic is outlined.

The rate of burning of wood cribs

The authors show how data on the burning rates of wood cribs can be correlated reasonably closely by using a simple empirical formula. The data obtained at the Fire Research Station can also be correlated with other results obtained in the United States.

New Buildings at the Fire Research Station

New Buildings at the Fire Research Station

PEOPLE

D.S.I.R. Director Appointed. The appointment is announced of S. H. CLARKE, C.B.E., M.SC., HON.M.I.FIRE e., as director of the new Research Station, now being built for the D.S.I.R. at Stevenage, for fuel and process research. Mr. Clarke is the present director of the Fire Research Station at Boreham Wood, run jointly by the D.S.I.R. and the Fire Offices' Committee.

Organisation of Fire Research

THE Fire Research Organisation is a joint scheme in which an industry and the Government are partners, sharing the cost equally. It will be responsible for the conduct of research on all aspects of the prevention and extinction of fires, on the safety of life in fires and the mitigation of damage, except that on the fire resistance of buildings the Organisation will collaborate with the building research organisation of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, where much research on this subject has already been done. A Fire Research Station will be jointly established. The capital cost is likely to be of the order of £75,000–£100,000, and the ultimate annual running cost up to £50,000, both shared equally between the Department and the Fire Offices' Committee. As part of its contribution to the capital cost, the latter will transfer its Fire Testing Station at Elstree to the Government. The following are the broad subjects on which research will clearly have to be undertaken, although it will be for the Fire Research Board to make a selection and allot priority of work: (1) methods of preventing the occurrence of fires; (2) methods of extinguishing fires and equipment; (3) fire protection of buildings, that is, on the fire resistance of buildings, properties of building materials, and elements of structure, safety of life in fires, the prevention of the spread of fire within buildings and from building to building; (4) other fire hazards, for example, ships, aircraft, special industrial hazards.